Kupchak: 'We are pursuing big deals right now'

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak met with a group of reporters Monday and said he hasn't given up pursuit of Chris Paul or other blockbuster trades.

"We are pursuing big deals right now," Kupchak said.

But Kupchak said he didn't know if anything could come to fruition and therefore "we expect to have them (Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum) all season, yes."

Kupchak said that was the only way he could look at it given the uncertainty. It was clear that no one but Bryant, who has a no-trade clause in his contract, can be assured of staying on the Lakers' roster.

"There are no guarantees going forward," Kupchak said.

Regardless, armed with the trade exception acquired in the Lamar Odom deal from Dallas, Kupchak said he does intend to "add to the mix" on the roster with one player or two before the start of the season. He recognized the shortcomings currently in the frontcourt.

Kupchak said Odom would not have been traded if he hadn't asked for a trade. He also said the Lakers acted quickly in part because "it's very rare to be able to move a player of that salary size ($8.9 million)."

"Lamar is probably more sensitive and more emotional than most people," said Kupchak, noting that it is a positive for Odom more than a negative. But Kupchak said Odom "couldn't get over" the Lakers having tried to trade him for Paul before that deal was blocked by the NBA, owners of the New Orleans Hornets.

"It's all tied into what took place last week (with the aborted Paul trade)," Kupchak said about Odom.

Kupchak said the Lakers were more interested in the trade exception from Dallas than the risks and limitations of taking on other players from other teams, citing "flexibility going forward" now. He said the Lakers did not want to "wait two or three weeks" to see if Odom's mood changed, saying Odom would've "sucked energy" from the team and "we might not have had a better opportunity" than Dallas' trade exception and first-round pick.

Kupchak said he understands players' disappointment at losing a teammate, but he said Bryant did not express his dismay to him in their impromptu meeting Sunday. Kupchak said he initiated the talk when he saw Bryant coming through the executive offices on his way to the media-relations department and Bryant left with a hop still in his step. Bryant told reporters Monday that he did tell Kupchak just to do what he does.

Big-picture-wise, Kupchak didn't specify whether the Lakers would be deterred by new luxury-tax penalties starting in 2013 in the new collective bargaining agreement. He said generally that clubs would be but also said: "I'll never say that he (Lakers owner Jerry Buss) wouldn't do it, but he'd want to know who the player is. If it's a primo player and it means going into the tax, I wouldn't be surprised if he did it."

Kupchak confirmed the Lakers don't intend to use the amnesty clause right now.

Asked specifically about hope of getting Paul still with him not having moved to the Clippers or anywhere else, Kupchak answered: "There's several big deals out there that we're still pursuing." He also said they weren't limited to "the two" that people are thinking about, meaning Paul and Dwight Howard.

About his dismay over the NBA aborting the deal he had done for Paul with the Hornets and the Houston Rockets, Kupchak said he was "completely surprised."

Kupchak said: "We did the best we could to express our displeasure (to the NBA). ... To date, there has been no change."

Overall, Kupchak's search for the next move is rooted in getting "a team that can be better than the team that got beat in the second round." He said the decision to move Odom was tied into the fact that the Lakers failed last season, so "it's not like we were breaking up a championship team."

Kupchak said his "bottom line" is this: "If we can figure out a way to improve this team, we'll do it."

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